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next. Treasury Board requires Environment Canada to carry out an audit of the EDF at five-year intervals to ensure compliance with the terms that have been set up for the administration of the EDF. Furthermore, Environment Canada is not permitted to deduct its administrative costs or any training costs in managing the EDF from the monies paid to the EDF. It should also be noted that each award is accounted for separately so that the monies will only be used to fund projects in the region where the pollution occurred. The monies cannot be used for general federal government projects, infrastructure programs, general pollution cleanup, recreation and tourist projects or expenses to attend conferences or workshops. Instead the projects must be aimed at one of three priorities: 1. the restoration or improvement of the damaged natural resource; 2. the development of environmental damage and natural-resource restoration techniques; or 3. the education of the public about the need to combat environmental contamination and to promote nature-resource restoration. Environment Canada, as the custodian of the EDF, is committed to consulting and building partnerships with other stakeholders in achieving common objectives regarding the remediation and restoration of the damaged environment. Environment Canada prefers to fund EDF projects that demonstrate community support and involvement through partnerships with such non-profit organizations as community-based environmental groups, Aboriginal communities and organizations, universities, provinces, territories and municipalities. Environment Canada encourages these organizations to submit restoration, environmental-quality improvement, research or education-based project proposals. This has resulted in Environment Canada finding partners who fulfill three important roles. First, these partners play a role in determining how the monies are spent in rehabilitating the environment. Second, they contribute additional money and resources in the process. Third, they often better understand local conditions and can play an important role in rehabilitating the environment. Accordingly, these partnerships are essential in making the EDF work effectively and at the same time promoting the need for protecting the environment. Environment Canada establishes clear criteria and standards that apply both to applicants and decision makers in relation to the use of the EDF monies for environmental restoration projects. Three important principles govern the process: the restoration projects must be cost-effective, they must be technically feasible and they must be scientifically sound. To a large degree these important principles have been borrowed from American jurisprudence such as the SS Zoe Colocotroni, supra, where the United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit, refused to award damages for restoration of the environment unless the government had a realistic plan in place to restore the environment to its pre-pollution state. An area where polluters have in the past been highly suspicious of government is in the field of environmental research. One common complaint is that the


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